The present invention relates generally to devices for obtaining gaseous samples in general and for obtaining air samples in particular.
In recent years the attention of the public has increasingly focused on the dangers of air pollution. Along these lines the United States government has established clean air standards which are administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In order to determine the presence and extent of harmful chemicals and particulate matter in the air, systematic and scientific sampling must be conducted.
One particular area of concern in recent years has been exposure by hospital operating room personnel to commonly used gaseous anaesthetics. In order to prevent exposure to excessive levels of such anaesthetics, several devices have been developed for sampling the atmosphere in hospital operating rooms so that the samples can be chemically analyzed in order to determine the extent of such anaesthetic contamination. Among such devices are those of Calibrated Instruments Incorporated and Boehringer Laboratories which utilize a vacuum pump to inject a quantity of the air within the operating room into a sample receptacle for later chemical analysis.
However, several problems have remained in obtaining samples of operating room air. Primary among these is the fact that an electric pump is required to collect the air samples. The danger of explosion being extremely high in operating rooms due to the flammable nature of the anaesthetic gases, such electrical devices must be shock proof, making them extremely expensive. In addition, such vacuum pumps tend to be expensive to operate either in the use of electricity or in batteries.
An additional problem in this regard is that devices presently available utilize flexible bags for obtaining samples. These bags are relatively high in cost and tend to leak over a period of time, necessitating replacement.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for obtaining air samples in operating rooms which does not require the use of electric motors; and
to provide such an air sampling apparatus utilizing air collection containers which are reuseable and remain airtight over an extended period of time.